Outdoor Adventures with Gary Lee - Vol. 367

We are halfway through June, the month when all birds are born in a bird banders book and the month when all my siblings were born. Just last night another little one was born on June 16, 2026, my third great grand child a boy six pounds three ounces to my granddaughter Rachel and her husband Chris Tanea in Rochester. Pictures flew through the airways via text and e-mails before he was an hour old being weighed in his birthday suit. I get to see him this week just before I go to Alaska with some of my family.

Many more things are being born out in the natural world with baby birds begging for food from their parents with the Raven babies being the most annoying when they are right in your backyard. They never seem to be getting enough to eat and why do the parents have five or six of them at a time who knows? They nest right on the ledge behind the house and bring them down to the opening of my dam as their feeding spot. The only time they are quiet is when it is dark.

Then the Barred Owl comes through with a little one in tow also begging with its treet call. Mom or dad are calling their who cooks for you calls search for food for the little ones. The does are being silent with their little ones following close behind, learning the ways in the woods and they soon know where their meal comes from. Don Andrews said he saw one fawn so little it couldn’t reach the food station, so the mother laid down to let the fawn nurse. Be alert when you see one deer crossing the road as there may be a fawn following not far behind.

My mallard mom duck must have lost all her family as she has been alone under the feeders for over a week. With the owl looking for a food source, these baby ducklings were probably it. The owls do catch lots of frogs as the frogs give away their location during breeding time, it becomes feeding time for the owls at night and hawks during the daytime.

    I was photographing a decent size bull frog at Quiver Pond the other night and a bass came up through the weeds and the frog was supper. That fish won’t have to eat again for a while.

I haven’t heard of any loon chicks on the water yet as many of the early nesting pairs lost they first nests as they gave up trying to sit on eggs with the cloud of blackflies around them. Most renested and they are having a better time of it as long as we don’t get any big rains. Some did lose their nests to high water when we had over four inches of rain in a couple of days.

The songbirds are doing ok but I did find some dead Tree Swallows in some of my boxes as they couldn’t find enough food to eat during the wet cool weather a month ago when they first arrived. They just flew all the way from South America, so their fat reserves were all used up and they needed something to eat.

I’ve seen lots of turtles crossing the highways in search of a nice sandy spot to lay their eggs. Amy Sauer has a picture of two turtles laying their eggs almost nose to nose. Checking after they left, one left in such a hurry, it had forgotten to cover her eggs, so Amy did.

Everywhere I go I see some new wildflowers in bloom, some small ones never get seen, blue eyed grass in one and it is so pretty. Another around the shore of ponds and in bogs is pitcher plant flowers which only hold onto their pretty red petals for such a short time.

Next report will be from the coast of Alaska but that’s another story. See ya.

Photo above: Blue Eyed Grass